66_Sweet_as_Honey

66 Sweet as Honey

In 1963 a Lancaster bomber crashed on Wallis Island, a remote place in the South Pacific, a long way west of Samoa. The plane wasn't too badly damaged, but over the years the crash was forgotten and the wreck remained undisturbed. Then in 1989, twenty-six years after the crash, the plane was accidentally rediscovered in an aerial survey of the island. By this time, a Lancaster bomber in reasonable condition was rare and worth rescuing. The French authorities had the plane packaged and moved in parts back to France. Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. It has four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines but the group will need to have only three of them rebuilt. Imagine their surprise and delight when they broke open the packing cases and found that the fourth engine was sweet as honey--still in perfect condition. A colony of( bees had turned the engine into a hive and it was totally preserved in beeswax!

Words

• bomber /ˈbɑmɚ/ 轰炸机
• Pacific /pəˈsɪfɪk/ 太平洋
• wreck /rɛk/ 残骸
• undisturbed /ˌəndɪˈstɝbd/ 未被扰乱的
• accidentally /ˌæksəˈdɛntəli/ 偶然地
• aerial /ˈɛriəl/ 航空
• survey /sɚˈve/ 调查
• rare /rɛr/ 少见的
• enthusiasts /ɛnˈθuziˌæsts/ 热衷者
• Imagine /ˌɪˈmædʒən/ 想象
• delight /dɪˈlaɪt/ 高兴
• hive /haɪv/ 蜂巢
• preserved /prəˈzɝvd/ 保藏
• beeswax /ˈbizwæks/ 蜂蜡

Expressions

• have/get sth. done... : cause something to be done by somebody else. 请别人做某事
• over the years 数年间
• in reasonable condition 在合理条件下
• be worth doing... 值得做……
• turn a into b. 把a变成b